King or Kin?

Yes, it’s already Tuesday, and Giving Tuesday at that, and I’m only now putting up the blog post for this week. I had written this Sunday night and just as I was about to do a final edit, my laptop battery died and none of the text was recoverable. So I’m starting again fresh after a couple of busy days of baking and remembering my Dad on the anniversary of his death.

I took this past Sunday off and spent it decorating for Advent and Christmas and taking in a worship service on CTV Kitchener. Part of my Sunday routine is reading Episcopalian church historian Diana Butler Bass’ “Sunday Musings” e-mail. It was Christ the King Sunday, or Reign of Christ as it’s also called, and she was considering the language we use and what it means to call Jesus our King in the 21st century.

Certainly in United Church circles, changing the word Kingdom of heaven or of Christ or God to kin-dom has been gaining traction. At an ecumenical service in September I considered making the change as it was more comfortable for my United Church counterpart in our community. I held out because of assuming the crowd would resonate more with traditional language. I reasoned that I wanted to introduce and explain this to my own folks first before using it on a wider stage.

Diana shares theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz’s take on shifting to using this word and how kingdom has heavy connotations of colonialism, imperial violence and patriarchy (my note - there has never been a ‘queendom’ associated with God, with Esther perhaps coming closest). I’ve never felt totally comfortable with it. Canada being part of a monarchy has less and less meaning to many, with King Charles more of a figurehead than a powerful leader.

But, as Diana considers, a kin-dom is about a level playing field for everyone, a sense of commonality and family and a working together for love and justice. Younger generations are by and large ready to jump on that bandwagon for sure. They would love the image of Jesus being family and not a distant King holding out a royal scepter to His subjects who must maintain the systems and structures that put Him there.

Words matter. I wonder what will eventually become of this last Sunday in the Church’s calendar as language and meaning shift even more/ I’ve been reading a book by Rob Fuquay called A New Reformation that invites readers to not only have a more complete sense of Martin Luther’s life and role in the Protestant Reformation, but also to consider where we are called to continue reforming the Church today. What tired ways of organizing ourselves and doing things are actually keeping us from fulfilling the vision God has for us? What things that bother us are our own theses to post on facebook (or some other public square) for people to consider so that the church can flourish in this time and embrace everyone?

I’ve been late to the party in watching The Chosen but appreciate not only the episodes about Jesus and the disciples with contextual information woven in, but also the behind-the-scenes videos including the round table of faith leaders who gave feedback on the scripts. Just as in Jesus’ time the religious authorities were in need of seeing something new and different to reconnect with the living God, I believe we’re in a time of reforming the Church. Phyllis Tickle spoke about how every 500 years or so we have needed a revolution to keep us current and faithful in order to serve the evolving world around us.

We are children of God and part of Jesus’ family. Kin-dom inspires me far more than Kingdom as I think about the ways God calls me to interact with our culture. What words or aspects of the faith concern you? Which challenge you to consider a clearer and more loving approach as we move into Advent, the time of waiting for the Messiah to once again come into our midst in an astonishing and earth-shaking way?

May you experience the never-changing but always new peace and presence of God in this new season.